


All the ashes in my wake

by MagicClem



Category: Ready or Not (2019)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Fix-It, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Time Loop, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-06
Updated: 2019-12-06
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:28:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,045
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21695389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MagicClem/pseuds/MagicClem
Summary: She sits on the stairs in front of the house, thinking that finally, the nightmare is over.Then, a figure appears in front of her. The figure just smiles and says:"You didn’t think it was going to be that easy?"Or: Grace is stuck in a time loop.
Relationships: Daniel Le Domas/Grace Le Domas
Comments: 30
Kudos: 459





	All the ashes in my wake

**Author's Note:**

> Hey everyone! 
> 
> I just fell in love with this movie and I fell in love with Grace and Daniel who are amazing and deserve better. 
> 
> I hope you'll like this!

She sits on the stairs in front of the house, thinking that finally, the nightmare is over. She is exhausted and bloody and every muscle in her body hurt but she is alive. That’s a big thing. She can finally be free. She lights a cigarette up. She thinks it’s over. 

Then, a figure appears in front of her. It’s almost invisible and Grace doubts anyone can see it but her. She doesn’t know who that is but she has an idea. The figure just smiles and says:  
"You didn’t think it was going to be that easy?"  
And then, everything around her faints away and darkness is around her. 

1\.   
When she opens her eyes, she is in the house again. She must be dreaming, she fainted because of the pain or the smoke of the fire or both. She pinches her arm and it hurts for real. This is real. How? She won, she survived the night, why is she there again? Then, she hears the song. 

_Run run run. Time to run and hide._

Grace runs. 

She decides to act just like she did the night before. Maybe the previous night was not real, just some very detailed prophetic dream. She doesn’t believe that either but she doesn’t know what else to do. 

She hides in the dumbwaiter for a while, leaves it and Alex catches her. He hides her. She wants to yell at him because she knows he is going to betray her later but she doesn’t say anything, she feels some sort of numbest. 

She does everything like the first night. Daniel finds her, lets her leave. She takes the prop gun even if she knows it doesn’t work. She gets out of the house, that evil kid shoots her hand, she gets out of the property, the car still ignores her, Stevens finds her, brings her back, crashes the car, Daniel finds her, takes her back and then saves her. 

She does everything like the first night but only when Charity stops them does she realizes what this means. Just like the first time, she goes to Charity and takes her gun away from her and then she runs back to Daniel. She knows he is dying, his blood is on her hands and she is crying. 

They catch her again, while she is still crying over Daniel’s body. She notices Alex, who disappeared for most of the night and he looks betrayed. Maybe it’s because she is too emotional over Daniel’s death, who she is not supposed to be close to. But how do you explain crying for the only person who tried to save you two nights in a row, at the expense of his own life? 

Alex is still the one who leads the ritual. She still manages to get out. They all explode at sunrise. She is not even out of the house before everything goes black.

2\.   
When she opens her eyes, she is back in the mansion and the song starts playing. 

_Run run run. Time to run and hide._

She doesn’t run this time. She doesn’t hide in the dumbwaiter. If all of this is real and she can’t escape the Le Domas domain, she is going to test the rules of this game. She kills herself several times but she always ends up at the same place. The only thing she doesn’t try is letting the Le Domas catch her because she suspects that the person behind this hellish time loop might like that and that she won’t wake up again. 

When she is done trying to see if there is an escape in death, she tries to find what it is that Mr. Le Bail wants. She tries to win this game in a different way. It rarely ends well. More time than others, it ends with someone in the family finding her quickly in the game and she kills herself before they get a chance to do it themselves. Sometimes, Emily shoots her. 

The only thing that never changes is Daniel. No matter what, if he is the first one to find her, he will let her go. And if she goes far enough into the night, he will help her. And he will die for it. Most of the time, Charity is the one killing him. Sometimes it’s Fitch. One time it was his mother and Grace is glad that he doesn’t remember the loops because she is heartbroken for him. 

Through all those loops, she never tries to save him because she doesn’t know how. And every time, the loop starts over. 

3\.   
Grace decides that she needs to save Daniel. It’s not that she wanted him dead before obviously, it’s more that she was hoping that his survival would come with hers if the situation changed but clearly, that doesn’t work. Instead, she decides to include him in her plan. It’s no longer a “Grace is going to escape plan”, it’s a “Grace and Daniel plan”. 

The plan starts like any other night. It starts with the music and she goes directly to her room this time, taking her shoes. She doesn’t go into the secret passage, not yet, because Alex is going to come into the room from there. Emily kills the maid again and she doesn’t even react. She does everything the same way she did the first time, up until the moment Alex opens the door. That’s when she changes her plan. She doesn’t just burn Steves' face, she takes a knife and stabs him the neck. Then, she opens the kitchen door but she doesn’t leave. Instead, she goes back into the secret passage. 

She hears the family screaming at each other over it. Tony sends everyone after her, while he asks someone to take Alex in his bedroom and to tie him up. 

From there, it takes a few tries for her to get it right but she ends up finding Daniel. He is back inside an hour after her supposed escape. No one thinks about the secret passage because they don’t realize she knows them. When she finds Daniel, he is having another drink. When he sees her, he looks surprised.  
“Still there? I thought you were gone by now.”  
“To go where? I can’t just go wander in the woods.”  
“You can take my car,” he says.   
“Don’t you guys have that rich people thing, where you can stop the car form the distance when it’s stolen.”  
“Well it’s MY car, so I wouldn’t worry about that.”  
He gives her the keys and she says:  
“You should come with me.”  
He looks genuinely surprised. “Why would you want me there with you?”  
“You just helped me. They’ll make you pay for helping me.”  
“What about Alex?”  
“They tied him up in his bedroom. He is safe, he can catch up later.”  
That’s a lie obviously if he does catch up, she will throw his ring at his face and tell him she doesn’t want anything from him ever again.

Daniel hesitates before agreeing. They get to the car on her first try and manage to leave the house unarmed. She thinks it’s going to be over but not even a mile away, the engines stop.  
“What the fuck”, Daniel says under his breath. He pushes the button, the same button she used the first night. When the operator (who coincidentally is Justin from the first night) answers, Daniel asks why his car just stopped.   
“I’m sorry sir but this car was reported as stolen. There is nothing I can do.”  
“It’s MY car!”  
“I’m sorry but my hands are tied.”  
“Fuck you Justin,” Grace says.   
“I don’t understand,” Daniel says, a confused look on his face.  
“It’s probably Charity, “ Grace says.   
Charity is good at ruining everything. 

The family catches up with them. Someone shoots Daniel here and there. Grace screams before stealing Charity’s gun and shoots herself in the head. 

4\.   
She has to say that of all the loops, this one is the worst. It’s not even the worst because she suffers the most. It’s the worst because she manages to avoid everyone, including Daniel. She thinks that maybe if she doesn’t include him, she can save him. She doesn’t hurt anyone this time, it’s a true Hide and Seek game and she is killing it. After spending so much time here, she knows every single place and uses it to her advantage. But it’s not why it’s the worst loop. 

It’s the worst because she has not done anything and Alex betrays her anyway. This truly breaks her heart more than any other time because maybe deep down she hoped that the reason he did it was her actions. That he betrayed her because she killed his mother or because he thought she betrayed him in some way. Deep down, she hopes that it was not because she would leave because if this was the real reason, then she had to face the fact that she married someone she doesn’t know. Because that proves he is selfish. That he doesn’t love her and only wants to possess her. That he believes that if he can’t have her, no one can. That he knew what he was doing when he married her. It was not naivety and hope that she wouldn’t get the card that convinced him to marry her. He married her because he is selfish and wanted her all for himself and was willing to put her through all of this because he is just that type of person. And it hurts because even though she can’t forgive him either way, she can understand his anger but she can’t understand his selfishness. 

Daniel doesn’t help her in this loop, which also participates in the “worst loop ever” but she doesn’t blame him. He didn’t have a chance before because she avoided him. And now that he saw his baby brother turns on her for no reason, his baby brother choosing his fucked up family over her, his baby brother proving that he is not, in fact, the best of them, he just looks in shock. He doesn't even really participate, he just doesn't do anything. She can’t blame him for this, not when all those loops showed her how much he loves Alex and how he is sure that Alex deep down is the best Le Domas. 

Still, it’s too late for them. She survives until sunrise and they all explode one by one until it’s her, Alex and Daniel in the room. Alex begs for her forgiveness, tells her he loves her, that it was his family who turned them against each other but she doesn’t believe him, not after seeing him turn on her every single time this choice had to be made. She takes off her ring and throws it at him.   
“I want a divorce.”  
He explodes and she is covered in his blood but in a way, it’s strangely satisfying. Daniel doesn’t say anything, even if he is still there. He doesn’t beg like his wife or her husband, he doesn’t try to kill her like his aunt, he doesn’t try to bargain like his father. He goes for the bottle of whiskey, puts some in a glass and slowly drinks. He faces death with dignity, like his mother, and she respects him for that. Then he says:  
“For what it’s worth, I’m so sorry Grace. I should have helped you.”  
He is so earnest. It’s his last moment on Earth and he spends it apologizing to her.   
“I forgive you,” she says and she means it.   
He explodes. 

Grace doesn’t leave the room. She lets the fire consume her. 

5\.   
She doesn’t resist the urge to slap Alex the next time she sees him. It blows up in her face but she doesn’t care. He deserves it. 

The next time, she doesn’t run. She finds her way to Daniel. She wants to talk to him. She learned more about him during those loops than she ever did during her relationship with Alex. 

She finds him in the same room as usual. He is about to have a drink but she was faster this time and she offers him one. He takes it, a little confused.   
“You know I have to tell the others.”  
“I know, you always tell the others. But can we talk first?”  
“What?”  
She knows she doesn’t make sense to him, he doesn’t know about the loops. She ignores him. She wants to ask something.   
“Can I ask you a question? It’s a thought experiment.”  
Daniel nods.  
“If you were Alex, what would you do?”  
“I don’t understand?”  
“I mean, what would you do if you were in his situation? If you met someone you loved and they were in this fucked up situation, what would you do?”  
“I would help them”, he says without hesitation. “If I love this person, I would help them no matter the consequence.”  
She nods and smiles.   
“But that doesn’t matter,” Daniel adds. “I would never be in this situation.”  
“Why?”  
“Because if I loved you, I would never have married you.” He says it like it’s the most obvious thing in the world and her smile is brighter. And to think he believes Alex is the good brother when Daniel is the only good person in this fucked up family. It’s also the most romantic thing someone ever said to her, which might be an indication that the bar is really low but she doesn’t care. She doesn’t even care if he doesn’t feel that way about her even if she suspects he does, a little at least, because she sees the way he looks at her when he thinks she isn’t looking. Because he chooses her over his family every time, even when she does something that should make him change his mind. And it doesn’t really matter if he feels this way but she does love him. How many times can someone show you that they care about you, that they would die for you before you fall for them? Grace doesn’t hesitate: she closes the distance between them and kisses him. He is surprised and doesn’t respond. When she stops, he says:  
“What was that for?”  
His voice is slightly breaking and he looks like he can’t believe what just happened. He looks like someone who just got what he wanted but can’t possibly believe it’s real.   
“Because I wanted to,” she says. “Because none of this matters.”  
And she doesn’t give him time to respond and kisses him again. This time, he kisses her back, it’s soft and passionate at the same time. He puts his hands on her back to get her closer and she puts her arms around his neck, one hand in his hair on the back of his head. They kiss until they are interrupted by Alex, who walks in on them and looks utterly betrayed. Good, Grace thinks, let him suffer. Daniel gets away from her, suddenly very aware of the fact that he was kissing the woman his brother married. Then, Alex takes out a gun (where does it even come from? Does she even care?) and shoots Daniel. Daniel falls on the ground and Grace screams, getting on her knees beside him.  
“It’s going to be alright,” she says, even if it’s not. She saw death so many times since this whole thing started but his death is still the only one that feels like someone is ripping her heart out of her chest.   
“Grace,” Daniel says.  
It looks like he wants to say something, but all he says is her name and he says it again and again. He says her name like he would say a prayer, softly and like there is something sacred to it. He says it like he is scared of what will come next and like she is the only light left while the world is going dark. 

When Daniel stops breathing, Grace kisses his forehead and wipes the tears off her face. Alex is still there, he didn’t say a thing or moved, he looks so shocked that he just killed his brother (which is really a new low for him). The rest of the family arrived, just as horrified by the turn of events, not even trying to hurt her because everyone just can’t believe what just happened. Without any second thought, Grace grabs Daniel’s rifle, shoots Alex and then herself. 

+1  
When she opens her eyes this time, she has the feeling that this time will be different. The song starts playing. 

_Run run run. Time to run and hide._

She runs, not because she wants to hide. She runs because she needs to be quick. She takes her shoes. She waits for Alex. 

Really, she does almost everything like she did the first time, she is just more careful about it. She lets Alex takes her in the secret passage, makes promises that he will break sooner or later. 

When she gets into the room where she knows Daniel will get in a moment, she is calm. She is not scared anymore. When Daniel arrives, he looks surprised and says:  
“I’m just here to get a drink.”  
“I know.”  
He doesn’t comment.   
“I have to tell the others.”  
“OK,” she says. “But I need to tell you something first.”  
He is confused by her attitude, she knows it but it doesn’t matter. She only wants him to survive this night.  
“You should do something about Charity’s gun. She is going to use it against you at some point. It’s in her bag.”  
“What are you talking about?”  
“You’ll see.”  
And then, she leaves and she hears him calling for the family. 

She still takes the prop gun. She knows it’s useless as a weapon but it’s not useless as a distraction. She arrives in the kitchen a little bit earlier than she did the first time. It gives her enough time to grab one of the sharp knives. Then, she waits for Stevens. She waits for him to finish boiling his water before announcing her presence, pretending that she doesn’t know the shotgun doesn’t work. Then, she throws the boiling water in his face and stabs him in the neck. She leaves him to bleed to death before going outside. 

Georgie is there, right on time, but this time, she knows he is coming. She lets him try to shoot her but she knows it’s coming and managed to avoid the bullet. Then, she knocks him out and steals his gun before leaving. 

She doesn’t leave the house, it’s pointless to try. Instead, she tries to avoid them and gets back inside. She hides the gun under the stairs, where she knows she’ll use it later. Then, she goes back inside the secret passage. 

Alex is in his room. She opens the door and he looks so surprised to see her.  
“Grace!”  
She doesn’t say anything. She sits there, in silence. There is so much she wants to tell him.   
“Can I ask you a question?”  
“Of course my love,” he says.  
“Why didn’t you tell me?”  
He looks surprised and maybe he starts to notice the venom in her eyes. Still, he answers.  
“I didn’t think you would get this card.”  
“You could have told me,” she says. “Even with any other card, I had no idea what I was getting into. Why would you do that?”  
“Because I love you,” he says and he sounds so honest like he truly believes he is a good person. She can’t stop the bitter laugh that escapes.   
“Love? You took away my choice, drag me into this and you call that love? You are so selfish Alex. I don’t understand why I never saw that before. It hurts you know because I truly loved you.”  
“Loved?”  
She doesn’t even answer. She grabs a heavy object and knocks Alex out. She doesn’t kill him. She’ll let Mr. Le Bail finish the job. Then, she goes back into the secret passage. 

They catch her at some point. That was inevitable. She never managed a single night without being caught at least once. It doesn’t matter. Alex is still unconscious upstairs. The others are still there, drinking the wine and as she expected, they all start choking and Daniel helps her get free.   
“I knew you would help.”  
“Really? I didn’t.”  
They hide under the stairs, just like the first night. It’s different though. She grabs the gun she left there a moment ago. 

Right on time, Charity is there, pointing her gun at them. She pulls the trigger but nothing happens. Charity looks confused. Daniel has a smug smile when he says:  
“It works better with bullet dear.”  
He takes the gun from Grace’s hands and shoots her. Grace is not going to lie: after seeing Charity kill him time and time again, this is really good to watch. 

Someone shoots Daniel with an arrow. Becky then. But she didn’t have a good angle and only put it in his should. It hurts but he will recover. Daniel looks at Grace and says:  
“Run.”  
She nods. “I’ll come back for you.”  
She hears Becky saying that she is sorry but had no choice and that he will understand. 

The rest of the night is like the first one. She fights Tony and gets away, starting a fire in the process. Becky misses her with her arrow, they fight and Grace smashes her head with that damn box. Alex freed himself. He looks at his mother, dead and says:  
“She was right about me.”  
“I know.”  
He calls the others. 

Just like the first night, Alex is the one with the dagger. Just like the first night, she moves at the last second. He stabs her shoulder and she gets up before trying to keep them away from her. She knows the sun is up, they just need to see it now. They are interrupted by the sound of a gunshot. Daniel is there, pointing the gun at the ceiling, the arrow still in his shoulder. His shirt is soaked with blood, actually, there is blood everywhere, his hair is a mess and he looks tired. Grace thinks he has never been more beautiful. He says:   
“That’s enough!” His voice sounds calm but Grace can hear the anger underneath.   
“She needs to die!” his aunt Helen says.  
“It’s too late. The sun is up,” Daniel responds.   
Just like the first time, they all get scared and nothing happens. Just like the first time, Helen wants to kill her anyway and then, everybody is exploding. Alex is the last one standing, like always and like always, he begs for mercy and forgiveness and a second chance. She can’t of course, she couldn’t the first time and everything she saw since just showed her she made the right decision the first time. She removes her wedding ring and says:  
“I want a divorce.”  
Him dying is still extremely satisfying. 

Daniel looks like someone who is ready to die but Grace knows he won’t, just like she knew he would last time they were the last two standing. She grabs his mother's cigarette case and grabs his arm.   
“We need to go.”  
He follows her, even if it’s obvious he is expecting to die at any moment now. 

They sit on the stairs, waiting for the police to arrive too late. She takes a cigarette out and gives one to Daniel. She lights them up and enjoys it. Daniel still looks confused.   
“I don’t understand.”  
“You saved me. I guess that’s enough for you to live.”  
“You did most of the job.”  
“Still, I would not have survived without you.”  
He nods but doesn’t say anything.   
“Now what?” he asks.  
She takes his hand in hers, intermingling their fingers together.   
“I don’t know about you but I’m going to take off this stupid dress and take the longest shower of my life. We’ll see after that.”  
He smiles at her. She wants to kiss him but she doesn’t. Instead, she squeezes his hand and he squeezes back. They can figure out the rest tomorrow. 

**Author's Note:**

> So, what did you guys think? 
> 
> Comments are always appreciated!
> 
> (Also, English is not my first language and I didn't have a beta here, so if you notice any mistake, let me know and I'll correct them ^^)


End file.
